The Best of 2013, Amherst Edition

January 2, 2014

Now that 2014 is upon us, the members of the college’s Public Affairs staff decided to take a page from many newspapers, magazines and websites and look back at the year that was at Amherst. Here are some of our favorite stories from 2013.

The four professors will use their grants to work with students to continue researching brain circuitry, fish evolution, plant disease and environmental conservation, respectively. Below are brief descriptions of the grants and the research that will be supported.

Disease Likely Not a Common Cause of Species Extinction, New Amherst Study Finds

August 25, 2010

Challenging the widespread belief that rare and endangered plants and animals are unhealthy, a new study has found they in fact harbor a lower number and diversity of disease-causing parasites than non-threatened, close relatives of the same family, according to Amherst College biology professor Michael Hood and his research team.

AMHERST, Mass.—Amherst College biology professor Michael Hood is among 190 winners of the 2008 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation’s 84th annual fellowship competition for the United States and Canada. Hood received one of the prestigious awards in support of his research on the evolutionary ecology and global disease distribution of a fungus that causes a common plant disease.